Merry Christmas Eve! Have you finished your holiday shopping yet? If you’ve procrastinated a bit, maybe these tips will help you out!

“There’s not enough hours in the day.”

If I had a nickel for every time I heard my mom say this while I was growing up, I would probably be pretty wealthy.

We all know that sometimes, 24 hours just isn’t enough time to get everything done – and I’m not just talking about work. Family, friends, exercise, sleep … who has time for a truly healthy balance? Throw in a killer commute (if applicable) and that’s a recipe for burnout.

Those of you at small-staff associations are probably already more aware than most of the difficulties of time management. When more responsibilities fall to you because of a smaller staff, it’s crucial to prioritize, prioritize, prioritize.

1. If you’re having trouble accomplishing all your tasks within deadline or a reasonable amount of time, keep an activity log for a few days (or even a week). There’s nothing wrong with reading blogs and checking the latest on YouTube here and there, but it can become detrimental to your productivity after awhile.
2. Once you identify your distractions, try setting a few goals. Stay focused on work for 45 minutes and then check out the news or your favorite Web site. If you force yourself to work, work, work all day, every day, the quality of your work could suffer. (Of course, some days do demand this.)
3. Like I said before, prioritizing is key. Make a to-do list. Research has proven that people who keep lists are healthier and happier. (I love the feeling of crossing off an important task!) Classify your duties as Urgent, Important and Habitual. Obviously if a deadline is looming, it makes sense to focus on that task before all others. But regardless of deadlines, stay focused.
4. Which brings me to this point … stop multitasking! I’m guilty of this too (aren’t we all?), but research has also proven that multitasking kills productivity. When your brain floats back and forth between different tasks, your concentration falters (clearly) and memory retention decreases.
5. Get rid of distractions. I like to turn my Tweetdeck notifications off, change my Gchat status to “Busy” and hide my cell phone deep in my bag. If I can’t hear it vibrate, I won’t be as tempted to check it.
6. Finally, be realistic. No one is superman or superwoman – no matter how hard they try. Sometimes, you just need a good night’s sleep. A well-balanced work schedule is essential to not getting frazzled and burned out.

Make time in your busy week for yourself. For example, I go to yoga at least once a week. But it could be as simple as scheduling a lunch date with an old friend or catching up on an old episode or two of “Lost.” No matter how many “hats” you wear in your association, each one will fit better if you devote even a little bit of time to yourself. Happy Productivity!

(Image via CarbonNYC on Flickr)